Welfare Reform Bill

I will pick up on a couple of points that have been made. My noble friend is absolutely right to draw a distinction between the progress-to-work group of provisions and the nature and length of engagement that they are likely to require at any point. The expectation is that that could generally, as I think I said earlier, be accomplished under the arrangements that a parent already had. There is a distinction to be drawn between them and the "work for your benefit" group of provisions in Clause 1 because there is typically a requirement to engage for possibly 40 hours a week, 10 of which are focused on job search and employment support, although if someone’s jobseeker’s agreement has already established that they should not be available for work or seek to work for more than, say, 20 hours, that would be carried through into the "work for your benefit" rules. I shall now get back to the very reasonable point on which the noble Lord pressed me earlier. The best way in which to approach it is to say that the parent is in the driving seat and will decide what is suitable for their child. Ultimately, however, when it comes to deciding whether a direction was reasonable or whether a person had good cause not to follow it, clearly the decision-makers in Jobcentre Plus have to take a view on what was reasonable in those circumstances. Nothing in all this requires parents to be directed to place their child with any particular provision, although consequences may flow from that. I hope that that helps. I have forgotten where we are and whose amendment this is.